


A mile in your sneakers

by BrightestSun



Series: Au Yea August [15]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU Yeah AUgust (Miraculous Ladybug), Action, Fluff, Gen, Ha!, Original Hero - Freeform, body swapping, fu - Freeform, just a cute story about two buds turning into one best bud, panda miraculous, sion - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-28 00:37:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15696606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightestSun/pseuds/BrightestSun
Summary: Alix finds a broken Miraculous, the kwami is obviously damaged but perfectly functional. She tells Alix that she doesn't want to be used for fighting. When Alix discovers that someone is using the other half of the pacifist kwami for their own purposes, she decides that heads must roll.AU Yea August - Life SwapDidn't manage to finish this in time unfortunatly, but I'm hoping to return to it after the event is over. Hope it's still fun as a standalone.





	A mile in your sneakers

”Oh no… no this is all wrong” the small white cat floated gently towards the computer screen, looking over the images of the new heroes of Paris. She had a somber expression on her face, looking at Volpina and Le Paon fighting.

Alix let her watch take in the image while she herself took in the creature in front of her. It was a small white catlike creature, a kwami appearently it was called. She might be the strangest thing Alix had seen, especially because of her lack of a full body.

Alix touched the little metal charm between her fingers, it looked like half of a stick with a leaf growing on it. It was clearly only half of the charm however, it was broken in half, and the creature before her reflected this.

She looked like a 3D model which hadn’t been finished, she was hollow, with the top half of her head completely missing. Her head stopped smoothly just above her mouth, tracing a smooth line around her head as though she was supposed to wear an eye mask like many of the Parisian heroes, instead there was nothing there, and Alix could look down directly into her hollow white body from the top.

Alix decided to try and push down the questions of how she could see with no eyes to speak of, after all, it was beyond evident that she could see just fine, and it seemed pointless to ask.

Her confoundment was slowly overpowered by questions burning through to the front of her mind. “Why is it wrong? Looks alright to me, they’ll get Volpina soon I’m sure.”

The cat shook her head “there should be nothing to ‘get’. There should never be this many Miraculouses active at any one time, especially not so close together.” The kwami frowned thoughtfully.

“So what happened? Why are they all over the place? Why are you broken?”

She shook her head “it’s limited what I can sense when not in contact with a human. All I remember is falling, then… I guess my miraculous hit something with enough force to break it apart.” She sighed sadly.

“Are you… alright? I mean, you’re kind of…” Alix gestured towards her own head in the area where the cat was missing hers.

The cat shrugged “kind of. This body of mine is not in an ideal condition, but I’m not this body. We kwami are representations of something greater. If my miraculous was destroyed, my anchor to this plane would be destroyed, but I would be unharmed. And if someone was able to uncover the method for forging the Miraculouses, then I could once again return to this world.”

Alix nodded slowly, taking it all in. “So… does it hurt? Being like this?”

The creature nodded “tremendously. But it’s only this version of me feeling pain, so it doesn’t matter.”

Alix cocked an eyebrow “that sounds a lot like me saying I shouldn’t worry because my body’s only where my brain lives, it doesn’t matter if it’s hurt!”

She nodded “exactly. The temporary nature of the physical doesn’t matter when compared to the spiritual, to our real selves.”

Alix’ shoulders dropped, “you’ve gotta be kidding right!? Ugh… Is there something I can do? Help with the pain?”

She thought “I suppose eating could be good, but nothing’s going to really help aside from being made whole.”

Alix scratched her hair “Alright, guess I’ll try to find the other piece of your charm after dinner. What do you eat?”

“Bamboo” she said, still looking at the images on the computer.

“You’re kidding right!? Where am I supposed to get bamboo at this hour? Can’t you eat catfood?”

She sighed deeply “I guess any type of leaves will do, just not oak.” She pouted with passionate hatred for oak.

Alix rubbed her neck “I’ll see what I can do I guess.”

Alix had to resist the urge to look down into the top of the creature as she began eating the basil leaves that she’d brought. One after another the kwami downed the large leaves. She’d already eaten enough to fill the tiny body of hers and the fact that Alix could probably look down into her stomach if she wanted to was strangely tempting. Whenever she tried though, the kwami flew off somewhere else, seemingly shy about her ‘injury’.

“So… My name’s Alix, what’s yours?” she said, trying nonchalantly to croon her neck enough to see the kwami’s mouth from the other angle.

The kwami didn’t stop eating, but slid slowly away from view, leaning backwards and making it impossible to see. “I’m Ween.”

“Alright Ween. So what are we going to do? Get the rest of your charm and then you’ll turn me into a hero?” Alix looked at her without much excitement.

Ween shook her head “there are too many Miraculouses already active. I implore you, if you find a way to make me whole, don’t use me for your own purposes.” She begged.

Alix held her palms up in front of her defensively “woah hold up, I’m not exactly lining up to be a superhero. Sure it’d be kind of cool but hey, look at me, I’m cool enough already.” She smiled boastfully.

The kwami tilted her head confused, hurting Alix’ pride more than she’d like to admit.

“What I mean is-” she said, clearing her throat “that if you don’t need me to go out fighting crime or chasing butterflies or whatever, then I’m alright with that. I’ve got enough going on without that biz. But I want to help you become whole again.”

Ween nodded slowly “that’s kind of you. But why would you want to help me if you have nothing to gain?”

Alix sat back, looking up into the ceiling. She remembered when she first befriended Nathaniel he’d asked her something similar. But when someone was hurt and alone right in front of her then she couldn’t just do nothing. That was the reason she had 6 cats (well, 7 now), and it was the reason she kept trying to help Marinette. She kept being in situations where people needed help, and she couldn’t just not help them.

“Guess I just don’t like seeing people suffering.” She responded. “So what will you do after you become whole?”

“I need to find Fu and return to his care for when a keeper decides that I’m needed, only then will I grant my powers. These others, I imagine they’ve let themselves get carried away, in the hands of a human and suddenly they forget that we don’t grant these powers for fun, we do it when the world really needs us, and it’s not for us to decide.” It looked like she clenched her flippers into fists, though with her anatomy it was hard to tell.

Light suddenly enveloped the kwami and the charm in Alix’ hand. For a moment Alix could see the clear outline of the rest of her head, her large glowing eyes. She stood like a shining beacon for a few seconds then returned to normal. She gasped for breath, seemingly the ordeal had taken a lot out of her, whatever it was.

“What happened? Are you alright?” Alix asked conserned, walking up to hold the creature in her hands. Knowing that even if she was hurt there was nothing she could do, she simply didn’t know how she worked.

“I think someone used my powers. Someone used the other part of the charm to transform.” She gasped, she seemed horrified.

Alix looked down at the helpless creature, scared and alone, being used against her wishes. She could feel a fury burning up inside her “Ween, transform me. I promise, the only thing I’ll do is track down whoever’s using you and grab your other half out of their selfish hands!”

Ween looked surprised for a moment, she looked up into Alix’ eyes, weighing her options for a moment. Then she nodded, transforming into a beam of light, enveloping Alix.

The kwami lit up, transforming into a streak of light and entering into the charm. Alix felt herself enveloped in white light which touched against her body, running over her like a rush of warm water, then an unnatural rattling sound, followed by Ween being violently ejected away from her, landing on the ground and skipping across twice, landing against the wall.

Alix quickly dashed to her, picking up the small creature, praying that she wasn’t dead. “Are you alright!?” she saw the small thing moving its mouth, groaning in pain.

“I’m fine it’s just-“

“-just your body!? Yea I know, is your BODY alright!?” She grit her teeth at the little thing.

Ween groaned in pain trying to move “I don’t feel great.” She admitted.

“What happened?” Alix asked, taking her over to the table, lightly folding a napkin into a little bed before softly putting the creature into it.

“I’m not sure. Either I can only transform one person at a time regardless of how many pieces I’m in, or this version of me simply doesn’t have the power to transform anyone. She let her head fall back against the cloth, “I’m… useless. Broken.” her voice broke and she began lightly sobbing.

Alix’ breathing increased, she could feel the desire she had to help the creature turning into a burning need. She felt her blood boiling and her teeth grinding as she thought on what to do.

She ripped her skates off the shelf, placing them by the door and began collecting her protective gear, putting it on as violently as she could.

“What are you doing?” The kwami asked from the table, her breath still ragged and uneven.

Alix slammed the mechanism shut on her knee brace “I’m gonna go kick some ass. Gonna start with whoever’s holding your other half, then take it from there.”

Ween grunted in pain, sitting up and looking towards Alix. “You can’t. Whoever wields me is going to be superhumanly powerful. You can’t just go throw yourself at a supervillain.” Her worried tone did little to dissuade Alix.

“Whoever it is only has half of you right? So probably a subparvillain at best.” She huffed, more ready for a fight than she’d ever been.

“You could get hurt. Please, I can’t let you get hurt because of me, this isn’t your problem.”

Alix scoffed, standing up confidently and looking at her “it’s just my body that’ll get hurt right? It’s no big deal. Besides, I’m tougher than I look.”

The kwami went silent for a moment, Alix could practically see her eyes growing wider in spite of the creatures strange anatomy. She nodded to Alix. “You should wear a mask. If you fail you don’t want your enemy to identify you.”

“What? Like the other heroes? They barely cover their cheekbones and no one knows who they are! If I wear my helmet I’ll be fine.”

Ween shook her head “the masks we supply as part of our powers are more than just a piece of cloth. The mask changes the appearance of the wearer in the eyes of whoever watches them. The masks are enough because we use our magic to make it difficult, even when it’s staring right at you, to tell who someone truly is. Without that, you’ll be spotted fairly easily.”

Alix groaned, opening her closet and looking through for something she could wear. She quickly discarded most of her clothes, throwing them from the closet onto the center of the floor. Then she spotted the white outfit in the plastic bag, doomed to never be worn again, or so she’d thought.

Alix donned her Halloween costume from last year, the White Ranger, it seemed fitting. She’d even build it so the mask was part of a helmet so she could rollerblade around. It wasn’t a true copy, more of a reimagining really. After she’d started painting details on the helmet she’d had a really hard time staying on model, opting instead to freestyle.

She looked over herself in the mirror, it had been a shame that she’d only worn it once. It made her feel like a total badass, though of course she’d never admit that. She returned her safety gear on the outside of her costume and looked herself over. She was going to destroy whoever was using Ween’s other half, they didn’t stand a chance.

Alix thought for a moment, the initial righteous fury taking a backseat to a few logical questions “So, do you know where this person is?” she asked Ween.

Ween nodded “yes, I can sense them.”

“That’s great! Where are they?” she smiled, this was going to be easy.

“Based on the resonance I feel and the closeness I would say somewhere within 500 kilometers” she smiled enthusiastically.

Alix’ smile froze “but that’s… all of Paris! And then some!” she groaned, wanting to run a hand through her pink hair but touching against her smooth helmet instead. She tapped at it, thinking quickly, trying to figure out how she could track a supervillain whom she knew literally nothing about.

It dawned on her, she sat down in front of her computer which was already on the Ladyblog because she had to show Ween the other heroes. She refreshed the page and sure enough *New Hero Spotted*. She clicked the article, getting the location and a picture.

Alix smirked, looking at the picture. It was a big muscular guy, his costume was black, similar to Chat Noir but it was evident that it was piecemeal at best. Looking at the bare chest and back of the costume, Alix suddenly felt a little thankful that the transformation hadn’t worked for her, the guy looked half naked.

The black helmet strapped around his chin, the large fists and the small rounded ears made her look down at Ween “you’re a panda?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow.

The kwami looked up at her confused “what else would I be?”

Alix shrugged, she was a simple woman, she saw a little slender creature with fangs and a soft voice and she assumed it was a kitten. To be fair, she hadn’t seen many panda’s in her time.

Alix looked over the image of her rival, he was posed in an open pose, raising his fists in the air and roaring like some kind of American wrestler, he looked ridiculous.

His outfit reminded her of her favorite anime character, Red Riot from Hero Academia. His bare-chested helmeted look was similar. His hands were covered in almost comically large gloves that looked cutely like bear paws.

His cute little rounded ears were so in contrast to his roaring pose that it made her smile, it was hard to imagine that he was going to be a real challenge, he looked like a complete idiot.

“Alright. Ween, lets go.” Alix grabbed the charm, putting it into her pocket and went for the door.

Alix didn’t really dream much of superpowers, flying would be neat at times, and being strong enough to fold Kim into a pretzel when he got uppity would be nice. However it’s not something she’d dreamed much about.

However if she had to choose a power she’d always liked to have, it would have to be super-speed, and it quickly became apparent that she’d actually gotten that power without ever having to ask for it.

Alix zipped through the streets like a miniature rocket, easily dashing between bikers and pedestrians without having to slow down. It had taken her a moment to realize how fast she was going, she hadn’t really seen it until she passed the school, realizing she’d bladed there in a fourth of the normal time.

She smiled to herself, suppressing the desire to ‘woo!’ as she felt every action was easier, more graceful and vastly more powerful.

She slid into the square where her rival had been seen last, seeing him in passing. He was still there, standing there looking at her. She was about to give him a piece of her mind but she realized he was disappearing from view.

Alix realized that supernatural speed didn’t necessarily come with supernatural stopping power, and the skates breaks were proving painfully slow (and possibly broken after being used at such speeds). She blushed as she saw the black clad villain looking after her with a confused expression, seeing her slipping off into an alley, hearing the screeching echo of the brakes slowly and painfully bringing her to a stop.

Alix was still going pretty fast as she entered the alley. Her eyes widened as she saw the wall approaching quickly. She was no noob at skates, and no noob at crashing either, she balled up, bracing herself for impact and felt the stone against her arms and palms. She made sure to shield her head from the worst of it.

The mild groaning of her body was manageable, she was barely scraped, but she’d wiped out pretty hard and was on the ground. The biggest bruise was definitely her ego, especially seeing her rival enter the alley with a worried expression coating his face.

“Are you alright miss!?” He asked.

“I’m fine asshole.” She answered, slowly getting up and brushing herself off. She tried to focus on the task, not on the embarrassment.

“Asshole? Miss, I’m the great Bear Daddy!” He struck a ferocious pose, almost cartoony pose.

Alix looked at him stunned for a moment, unable to phantom why he’d make a joke like that in a situation like this. She looked into his bold eyes which practically shone with determination and pride and it dawned on her, he was completely serious.  She burst out in laughter.

“Hey! What’s funny? Did you hurt your head? Do you need me to get you to a hospital?” he asked innocently, which just made Alix laugh harder.

Ween flew out of Alix’ pocket, pointing a fingerless arm at the guy, “You! You should be ashamed of yourself!” she began furiously, “taking advantage of a kwami without permission, without training, without even a thought I bet!”

“Woah woah!” Bear Daddy held his hands up in front of himself defensively “I don’t know who you are but my kwami said I should go be a hero.”

The white kwami pouted angrily, Alix was sure she’d be scowling if she had eyes. She looked towards Alix for support in her fury, but looking up at the big loaf, it just seemed unlikely that he was the type to abuse a kwami. He seemed genuine, if a bit (or a lot) naïve.

Alix approached him “I don’t know Ween, maybe your other half didn’t think it was as bad an idea to be a hero?” she suggested, looking at the pouting kwami.

“Oh! You have the other half of the necklace! That’s awesome!” he smiled, holding out his necklace with the other half of the bamboo staff on it, pointing to it with a huge grin, like a child who found out someone other than him liked pudding.

Alix chuckled, whatever this guy’s reasons, he didn’t seem like a bad person, she just couldn’t get herself to believe that. She got the other half of the charm out of her pocket to show him.

As she did, the two pieces suddenly began glowing brightly. Ween yelped with surprise before she was sucked into Alix’ charm. She only got a moment to think about that, before she was rushed forward by a massive yank. She practically flew towards the guy, who seemed to be in a similar situation, looking just as worried as she probably did.

The two charms clashed in the air, melting together as though completely fixed. Alix felt herself enveloped in light, moving unwillingly and suddenly finding herself transformed into a superhero.

She looked down at her large bearhands, now connected to the rest of the suit with white latex. Thankfully the suit covered everything, sparing her of running around shirtless. She felt weird, like she was panicking but she wasn’t really thinking anything that should cause her to panic.

She took a moment to try and explore those feelings, finding that little voice in the back of her mind which was screaming “ _ the girl! Where did the girl go! Is she alright _ !?” Alix pondered this for a moment, then suddenly understood.

She gave herself a patdown, quickly confirming her suspicion. She had grown about half a meter, her body had changed dramatically. “Bear… I can’t even say it with a straight face.” She heard the echoing voice inside her head “ _ what!? Who’s there!? Is that me speaking!? _ ”

She sighed “yea, it’s you speaking. Kind of. I think we fused into one body.” She concluded coldly, ignoring how impossible it sounded.

“WHAT!?” her mouth opened involuntarily, speaking with the same voice as she’d just spoken with, opening the same mouth. She felt her body moving, but under someone else’s control.

“Ok calm down. I’m sure it’s temporary.” She surprisingly felt the voice in the back of her mind slowly calming. He listened to her as she talked him through a quick breathing exercise. Which was strange because she was already doing it for him, so there wasn’t much need to have him know about it, still, maybe the act of being told to breathe was calming on its own, not just the breathing itself.

She closed her eyes, trying to hear him again. Instead what she heard where her own thoughts moving at double speed. “ _ Are you there? _ ” she nodded, “ _ what happened, I can’t hear you anymore? _ ” She wasn’t sure if it was her thought, or his. “ _ I think we’re thinking as one person. We’re both thinking the same thing, kind of? Maybe. It’s weird. _ ” They nodded again to themselves.

“ _ So what were you even doing here? _ ” Alix felt like she’d asked the question, but she also felt compelled to answer it with her side of the story, maybe he’d asked it just as much. Her mind was flooded with images of standing in front of a shadowey human, then lots of pain, then being pushed back into the street before seeing herself zipping past, entering the alley.

“Wait, were we fighting an akuma?” They opened their eyes wide, remembering the villain who had beaten Bear Daddy mercilessly, then seemingly left them alone. That akuma was probably still at large, probably hurting people!

Before they could start to think, they were already racing towards the akuma “ _ wait! What about a plan!? _ ” That thought was definitely her own. “ _ Bear Daddy needs no plan! He just needs a target for his paw! _ ” Alix felt a surge of incredible confidence rush through her, making her believe for a moment that this was a satisfactory answer, only for a moment though.

“ _ We are NOT calling ourselves Bear Daddy! And we need a plan! _ ” She grit their teeth. “ _ Why not!? Its awe oooh! _ ” Alix could feel her counterpart being fed with all of her reasons why it was a bad name all at once. It was like her thoughts were feeding directly into his, making him immediately understand the terrible nature of the name.

She tried to ignore how uncomfortably intimate the thought of sharing her thoughts directly with someone was, which came surprisingly easily, which was probably because of her partner’s confidence and apparent shamelessness influencing her.

“ _ So what DO we name ourselves? _ ” a fair thought, but one which Alix had hoped they’d had before they’d rushed further ahead. Now she found herself facing an army of inky men. They seemed to be silhouettes, some crawling along the floor, others standing two-dimensionally in the middle of the street.

Le Paon was fighting them alone, his hail of feathers were destroying the inkmen as fast as they could form, but he didn’t seem to be making any headway either.

“You! It’s dangerous for people without powers! This isn’t the time for dressup!” Le Paon yelled, in his eyes were clear worry, it was clear that he couldn’t protect a newbie in a costume while also fighting this menace alone.

“Don’t worry! The old Bear Daddy might not have had any powers aside from sweet abs and a cool costume, but now you’re dealing with Bear Daddy 2.0, Panda Storm!” Alix tried to fight against striking a power-pose, but it was too late. The incredible surge of confidence almost washed away her incredible need to die right this moment, almost.

Panda Storm, it was better than the old name and Alix didn’t have a better one off the top of her head so this was their name now appearently. They saw three ink-men approaching them menacingly.

They scoffed “three against one? That’s hardly fair for you.” They had to pause for a moment, both wanting to change it to ‘three against two’ but both deciding to drop it. They weren’t sure what kind of powers they had, but you never know until you try.

Panda Storm took a powerful step forward, Alix recognized that her counterpart knew boxing as he stepped with practiced form. They surged forward, delivering a jackhammer with their large bearpaw against the closest ink-blob, which splattered into thin strains of thick, black liquid, spraying out like a PG version of a horror-scene.

They grinned, quickly sidestepping a lazy swipe from the akuma, then delivering two quick jabs, one for each of them, splattering them across the pavement.

They raised their fists victoriously, roaring with a surge of beastial victory. Alix wanted to protest but she could feel the adrenaline pumping, the confidence surging. With every movement she found it harder to resist going along with the sheer awesomeness of the situation.

Le Paon stared at them impressed. “Don’t just stand there!” Panda Storm smiled “we’ll keep these things busy, you find a way to defeat it!” The peacock hero stood for a moment, taking in the situation, then his brain caught up and he nodded with a smile.

He unfolded his cape, taking a surge of air under himself and flew to the top of the nearest building, probably hoping to get a sense of the situation.

Meanwhile, Panda Storm looked out over the 30 or so ink monsters quickly clawing their way out of the shadows, up from the cracks in the pavement and out from behind them.

They took a defensive pose “Ready to kick some ass?” they both asked and both nodded in response. “Awesome.” They smiled as the first wave of ink rushed towards them, sidestepping with their supernatural speed and laid waste to one after another with powerful punches.

They quickly found that it didn’t take much force to break the creatures. It took all of their (mostly Alix’) willpower to stop using powerful hooks and jackhammers, opting instead for safer jabs which allowed them to keep a defensive stance and keep a level head.

The ink creatures were easy to fight back but they just kept coming. They started getting worried that there was no end to them at the fourth wave, then at the seventh they began starting to feel their movements growing sluggish.

Beads of sweat kept rolling off of them as the twelfth wave died out, replaced with another, and then another. Their mind was racing with thoughts on how to actually defeat the enemy, but they just didn’t know. As their legs began giving out and they started worrying they wouldn’t be able to run for much longer, they began feeling the split in personality for the first time since they started the fight.

“ _ We have to get some distance. Tackle this another way! _ ” Alix insisted. “No!” her partner yelled through their body “ _ I can keep taking whatever this guy throws at us! I can do this all day! _ ”

They grit their teeth “ _ No you can’t! I know this cause I’m you! And at this rate we might have to actually DO this all day, which again, WE CANNOT!”  _  Alix tried to yell at her partner in her own head. “ _ I don’t back down from a challenge! I’ll take on anyone! I don’t care if you’re a bunch of blobmen or a panther! I will give my all!” _

Alix felt herself freeze for a moment, which felt incredibly alien as her body kept moving under the other’s control “ _ KIM!? _ ” She yelled inside their head. “ _ Hah yea! How’d you know?”  _ he asked amused. “ _ You have to be the only guy in Paris dumb enough to race a panther!” _ they laughed.

“ _ Who are you then?”  _ Kim asked. Alix hesitated “ _ come on, it’s only fair right? _ ” Kim insisted. Alix scoffed, he was such a simple guy, but that was a big part of his charm. His straight forward thinking was what made him such a good friend. “ _ It’s Alix you moron. The skates should have tipped you off. _ ”

This time Kim was the one to freeze while Alix took over their body, she felt herself moving into the boxing steps with practiced ease, apparently they shared abilities, even when the other was blue screening.

The blob people suddenly froze in place, then began melting into the floor. They watched carefully, getting ready in their defensive stand. “ _ I think we beat it! _ ” Kim thought, “ _ no way, this is classic second stage bossfight territory. Watch, they’ll melt into a big tentacle monster or something. _ ” Alix thought.

Le Paon walked out towards them, coming from the building that the ink seemed to have emerged from. He was covered in black ink from head to toe, and was holding a ball of feathers, weaved together like a beautiful basket.

He tried wiping the ink from his face but it was no use, he groaned, giving up on ever being fully clean again. Then looked at them with an impressed smile “Good job Panda Storm. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

They felt their hearts well up with pride at the kind words. “Of course! Happy to help!” was the compromise between Alix’ inability to take a compliment and Kim’s wanting to boast.

Le Paon looked at the weaved feathers and sighed “any of you know Ladybug? She’s the only one who can actually de-evilize these things.” He looked at their apologetic face then sighed harder “that’s alright, I’ll probably be able to find her before I detransform… somehow. Anyway, good job, happy to have another good guy in town.” He winked at them charmingly before taking to the skies, leaving a trail of black ink around him as he flew.

They watched him fly off, still feeling the afterglow of their triumph. They’d helped take down a real akuma, and they’d gotten welcomed by one of the new heroes. Alix was happy but she could feel that Kim was beyond thrilled, like his childhood dream had been realized. She smiled, allowing him to bask in the moment, trying to (and easily succeeding from their shared mind) to share his enthusiasm.

Seeing Alya and a group of other reporters approaching them, they opted to listen to Alix and leave before accidentally saying something stupid. They jumped, feeling the acid in their legs complaining, but finding themselves gaining incredible height. They were able to actually get onto a rooftop with relative ease.

“So what now?” they asked themselves.  “My house is closest” they concluded, “my, Kim’s” they elaborated. They nodded, jumping quickly from roof to roof before realizing they were leaving a trail of inky footprints.

“ _ We can’t go to your house like this!”  _ Alix hissed, “ _ yea! My mom would kill me if I got this on the carpet. _ ” Alix sighed “ _ Also every reporter would be able to find out who you are! _ ” Alix could feel their gears slowly turning.

“ _ Oh yea that’s true! Nice catch! Man… I wish I’d had you with me before I entered that hotdogeating contest _ ” He concluded, their stomach growling with pain as they remembered the terrible mistake. “ _ I WAS with you! I told you to stop! You didn’t listen! _ ”

Kim nodded, smiling “ _ Right! Haha I’d forgotten. Still, if you’d been in my head I think I would have listened. _ ” Alix scoffed jokingly “ _ yea right, when had common sense ever stopped you from doing anything. _ ” Kim Shrugged “ _ common sense are for normal people. When you’re as awesome as me, you have to live by different rules _ .” Alix was glad to be in his head, otherwise she might have seriously wondered if he was kidding or not, thankfully he was.

They found an empty alley near Kim’s house. “ _ We should detransform here. If we’re lucky, we won’t have any of this stuff on us when we return to normal _ ” They nodded “ _ smart thinking! _ ”

They smiled to themselves “ _ thanks, and hey, worst case scenario, I’ll probably be clean and you’ll be the one who has to deal with the fallout of your rashness, ykno, for once in your life. _ ” Alix chuckled.

They stood in the alley, focusing on their breathing, wondering how detransforming worked, if there was a password they didn’t know. Then, as they were just starting to worry, they were enveloped by light and split apart.

Alix sighed in relief, happy to be ‘single’ again. She looked down at her hand, frowning at she realized that she actually WAS covered in black ink. She groaned, looking towards Kim so they could formulate a plan. Her eyes went wide as she saw her body staring back at her with a panicked expression.

She gave herself a quick look over, quickly establishing that she was in Kim’s body.

Her mind raced with everything wrong with this situation, with every fear about not ever being able to go back. As her thoughts darkened she suddenly heard her own voice, laughing loudly besides her.

She turned to see Kim chuckling in her body while looking at her. She clenched her fist “what’s so funny!?”

Kim dried a tear from his eye, “it’s just that last thing you said. Look! I’m completely clean and you’re covered in ink. Another Swish for Kim!” He lifted her body’s arms over his head in triumph “My actions have no consequences!” he yelled boasting with obvious joking intent.

Alix found herself laughing at his idiocy, that this was the first thing he thought of when placed in her body. “Not for long you piece of…!” Alix lunged forward with her ink covered body, narrowly missing Kim who dodged out of the way.

“Hey! No fair!” He said with a mix of joy and fear.

“The only thing that wouldn’t be fair is if I have to go home covered in ink and you don’t. Come here!” She lunged for him again, trying to draw him into a massive bearhug. The fears of the consequences of being in his body was going to have to wait until after she’d shown him the error of his ways.

  
  



End file.
